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Experiment: We will try to disprove the myth the way OG/GMAC positions it: the first 10 questions are not criticalMethodology: we will attempt the worst case scenario and will answer the first 10 questions incorrectly (not guess but incorrectly); then we will attempt to answer the remaining 27 questions correctly (not guess)Results: Q38 (48th percentile - ouch) with only 10 wrong answersAnalysis: obviously something is not right with the myth about the first 10 questions. They appear to be very important on the Quant. If you miss the first 10 (probably not a very realistic scenario for most) you have no way of climbing out of the hole - almost all questions that were offered to me were generally easy/medium difficulty. Let's try a different scenario next to check this myth (we'll miss the last 10 questions). Also interesting to note, when simulated in the previous GMAT Prep version, this scenario resulted in Q41 (so there have been changes in the scoring algorithms of the GMAT Prep).Total Score: every question in the verbal section was answered as "E" and it resulted in the final score of V8, 1st percentile. Total score: 380 - 10th percentileQuestions: 20PS and 17 DS. Also, see what question topics were encountered in this scenario:

2. What is the importance of the last 10 questions?

Experiment: We will try to analyze the importance of the last 10 questions and if it equals the important of the first 10Methodology: we will attempt the worst case scenario and will answer the first 27 Q questions correctly and then will answer the remaining 10 questions incorrectly (not guess but incorrectly). Results: Q50, 92nd percentile - Nicely done though not great. I think it is possible to get Q51 with 10 incorrect ones. Analysis: The questions were much harder this time with some new topics/types appearing on the test such as coordinate geometry DS. Conclusion: the last 10 don't count as much as the first 10. This myth is True (as long as you can get the first 27 right). Please note that I have not guessed the last 10 but rather answered them incorrectly (which means I still had to solve those questions too). If you are guessing, you will most likely get a higher score. Total Score: every question in the verbal section was answered as "E" (again) and it resulted in the final score of V8, 1st percentile. Total score: 470 (90 points higher than when we missed the first 10 questions)Questions: 20PS and 17 DS. Also, see what question topics were encountered in this scenario:

3. What is the importance of the middle 10 questions?

Experiment: We will try to analyze the importance of the middle 10 questions and see how it compares to the results of the previous 2 experimentsMethodology: we will attempt the worst case scenario and will answer the first 14 Q questions correctly; then I will answer incorrectly the following 10 questions, and will answer the remaining 13 questions correctly.Results: Q49, 85th percentile - not as good of a result as in the case of missing the last 10 questions but it was much less effort (fewer hard questions than in the second case) Analysis: The questions were not much easier than in the second scenario above even though I have made 10 consecutive mistakes. So, it may be a slightly better value in terms of effort/score but not by farTotal Score: every question in the verbal section was answered as "D" this time and it resulted in the final score of V6, 1st percentile. (Interestingly enough, it was a slightly worse result than "E"). Total score: 450

4. What is the penalty if I miss every third question?

Experiment: I will try to test a scenario in which a test takers answers every third question incorrectly (e.g. 3, 6, 9, etc. Thus giving themselves an extra 2 mins on quant). This scenario will simulate someone who takes 3 mins instead of 2 per question and then guesses every third question. Please note that this is the worst case scenario (we do not get any guesses right)Methodology: Every 3rd questions answered incorrectly. So, 13 incorrect and 24 correct answers.Results: Q49, 85th percentileAnalysis: Slightly lower score than in the case of missing the last 10 questions but it was much less effort in getting here(fewer hard questions than in the second or third scenarios I have tested). So far this is the best value in terms of effort/final scoreTotal Score: This time every question in the verbal section was answered as "C" this time and it resulted in the final score of V8, 1st percentile. Total score: 460, 23rd percentile.

5. Best Guessing Strategy: Part I - What if we guess a bunch of questions in the middle?

Experiment: I will attempt 3 different scenarios that will examine guessing strategies to figure out where the time should be invested. Methodology: First 10 questions answered correctly, then GUESSED the next 17 questions (answered C to all of them and got 4 out of 17 correct) and finally answered the remaining 10 questions correctly.Results: Q46, 73rd percentile.Analysis: This is a pretty similar to the scenario above where we tried to figure out the importance of the middle 10 questions; missing 3 more (13 wrong vs 10 wrong) resulted in a lower score by 3 points (46 vs. 49). Total Score: Every question in the verbal section was answered as "B" this time and it resulted in the final score of V6, 0 percentile. Total score: 420, 16th percentile.Questions: 21PS and 16 DS.

6. Best Guessing Strategy: Part II - guess every third question

Experiment: I will try to test a scenario in which a test takers GUESSES every other question (e.g. 2, 4, 6, etc). I was answering C to all even numbered question and guessed correctly 3 out of 18Results: Q40, 55th percentile. (22 correct answers and 15 incorrect answers, I guessed 3 questions correctly.)Analysis: Not sure what I was expecting guessing every other question. I guess I got the 55th percentile (half the ultimate score but I also only invested half the effort and gottend double the time to answer my other questions). So far, I don' think this is the best strategy in terms of guessing since my goal would be to get the most return for the least amount of effort. However, I do think this score is too low to be seriously considered by anyone. Total Score: Every question in the verbal section was answered as "A" this time and it resulted in the final score of V6, 0 percentile. Total score: 380, 10th percentile.

7. Best Guessing Strategy Part III - Variable Guessing

Experiment: first 10 questions answered correctly, GUESSED the next 9 questions (answered C to all of them, guessed 2 out of 9), then answered the next 9 questions correctly and finally GUESSED the remaining 9 questions (answered C to all of them, guessed 2 out of 9). So, 23 correct, 14 incorrect.Results: Q49, 85th percentile. (23 correct answers and 14 incorrect answers, I guessed 3 questions correctly.)Analysis: I was amazed to see Q49 as my final score. So far I think this is the best guessing strategy. It has resulted into the highest score (49) with 14 incorrect answers (compare that to scenario #5 above where I guessed the 17 middle questions and gotten 4 of them correct. I made 13 mistakes mistakes on that test but the final score was only 46. In this scenario I still only solved half the questions (guessed the other half). However, that's pretty darn good for solving only half the questions. Total Score: Every question in the verbal section was answered as "E" and it resulted in the final score of V9, 2 percentile. Total score: 470, 26th percentile.

8. PS vs DS: what is the importance of DS questions?

Experiment: first 10 questions answered correctly. After that, I answered incorrectly to 12 DS questions only. So, 25 correct and 12 incorrect answers (all DS).Results: Q50, 92th percentile.Analysis:Total Score: Every question in the verbal section was answered as "E" and it resulted in the final score of V8, 1 percentile. Total score: 470, 26th percentile.

9. PS vs DS: what is the importance of PS questions?

Experiment: first 10 questions answered correctly. After that, I answered incorrectly to 12 PS questions only. So, 25 correct and 12 incorrect answers (all PS).Results: Q49, 85th percentile.Analysis:Total Score: Every question in the verbal section was answered as "E" and it resulted in the final score of V11, 3rd percentile. Total score: 490, 31st percentile.

9 and 10. Importance of answering ALL the questions in time.

Experiment: two scenarios:A. Answered first 30 questions correctly and the remainder 7 questions incorrectly. Result Q50, 92nd percentile.B. Answered first 30 questions correctly and didn't answer the remainder 7 questions at all (ran out of time). Result Q45, 71st percentile.Analysis: As we can see it's extremely important to finish the test and manage to answer ALL the questions in time.

Do you have any questions or ideas what you would like to try? I will be running a few more scenarios - feel free to suggest what other scenarios would be interesting to test. Thank you!

Important Clarification: we have a strong reason to believe that even though GMAT Prep is the closest algorithm to the GMAT, it is most likely not identical. Some of these scenarios may result into a different outcome when attempted on the real test. We so far have no reports to confirm or dismiss these results based on the test day experience.

The 11 incorrect questions at the end of the Verbal section did not bring the score down greatly. It is unlikely that someone after attempting first 30 correctly would go so wrong in the last 11. The results show that the momentum gained by the first 30 questions is not significantly beaten by the last 11.

Conclusion:

Can we conclude that one should not worry about the last 11 questions, probably not. But, a few glitches at the end of the test would not destroy your hopes of getting a good score. This will be more clear from the results below.

2) What if you get some of the MID 11 questions (I took 11 to 20) incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

The MIDWAY 11 questions (11 to 20) incorrect and others correct.

Result:

Again V38 ( 83 percentile, once again, not bad after getting 11 questions incorrect in a row)

Analysis:

The 11 incorrect questions at the mid gave the same results as the previous experiment. The results show that the momentum lost by the mid 11 questions could be gained by answering remaining questions correctly.

Conclusion:

Again can we conclude that one should not worry about the mid 11 questions, probably not. But, the results show that you should not loose hope if you got a few questions incorrect somewhere in the midway.

3) What if you get all the FIRST 11 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the first 11 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V22 ( 27 percentile, not a good score in verbal. I was surprised by this result)

Analysis:

The first 11 questions literally spoiled the score. Furthermore, even the successful attempts of remaining questions could not recover from the damage done by the first 11 questions.

Conclusion:

Once again can we conclude that one should worry about the first 11 questions, definitely yes. The results show that first 11 are very important to your score. We considered an extreme scenario here; it is highly unlikely that someone would perform this way during the test. Therefore I considered somewhat realistic scenarios in the next experiments.

4) What if you get all the LAST 6 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the last 6 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V44 ( 97 percentile, an awesome score)

Analysis:

The last 6 incorrect questions were insignificant in bringing down the score.

Conclusion:

We can confidently say that if you are able to solve first 35 questions correctly, you have reached the 94+ percentile mark. Even if something bad happens in the last 6 questions, you will still be happy to see your score.

5) What if you get all the MID 6 questions(21 to 26) incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the MID 6 questions(21 to 26) incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V44 ( 97 percentile, wow again the same awesome score)

Analysis:

With the same results, the middle 6 incorrect questions were insignificant in bringing down the score. Moreover, the placement of these 6 incorrect questions seems to have no effect on the overall score.

Conclusion:

We can say that if you are able to solve first 35 questions correctly and the other middle 6 questions incorrectly, you have reached the 94+ percentile mark. Can we be sure about the fact that getting 35 questions correct in Verbal would give you a score of around V44 no matter what; the answer is no. The following experiments will prove why.

6) What if you get all the FIRST 6 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the FIRST 6 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V33 ( 66 percentile, a good score, but definitely not an awesome score)

Analysis:

Getting first 6 questions incorrect is more realistic than getting the first 11 incorrect. As compared to the last two results the first 6 question greatly damaged the overall verbal score.

Conclusion:

The first incorrect 6 questions can destroy someones' hope of reaching even the 70+ percentile mark in verbal, no matter how well he/ she performs on the remaining questions. The apparent conclusion is that one should not take the initial questions lightly.

A good score indeed, even after breaking the consistency after every 5 correct questions. One incorrect question between 10 correctly answered questions has not significantly lowered the overall score.

Conclusion:

The results are inline with our assumption that the more questions you solve consistently the higher your score. In testing scenarios 4 and 5 we got V44 where we solved 35 and 20 questions correct in a row respectively. In this test there was a small breaks in consistency, so we got a slightly lower score.

8) What if you get ALTERNATE questions incorrect/correct ?

Testing Scenario:

Alternate questions incorrect starting with first question incorrect. So, every odd question is incorrect and every even question is correct.

Result:

V16 ( 10 percentile)

Analysis:

This is a somewhat expected result. With around half questions incorrect and none correct in a row will in fact, result in a bad score. Some say that the first question that you receive is of medium difficulty level, a 50 percentile or a 500 level question. Moreover, if you get one question correct then incorrect probably you will maintain the level. The result was not a 50%ile score but a 10 %ile score.

Conclusion:

From the analysis we can conclude that alternate correct and incorrect question would gradually lower your percentile.

9 i) What if you get All SC questions incorrect: Test1 ?

I have conducted two tests to prove the point that SC is not individually adaptive and the location of SC question matters more than the number of SC questions that you got incorrect.

In both the tests I got all the 17 SC questions incorrect, but the different in the two scores was huge. In the first started with an SC question, moreover 3 out of first six were SC.

Conclusion:

SC is not individually adaptive and where you got an SC question matters more than the number of SC questions that you got incorrect. So, initial SC questions (of any other initial questions) are really more important for your overall score.

10 i) What if you get All RC questions incorrect: Test1 ?

I have conducted two tests to prove the point that RC is not individually adaptive and the location of RC question matters more than the number of RC questions that you got incorrect.

Testing Scenario:

All theReading Comprehension questions incorrect anywhere in the test. In this iteration I got RC questions at following question numbers: 10-13, 16-18, 23-25, 33-35. 13 RC questions in total.

Result:

V36 ( 79 percentile)

10 ii) What if you get ALL RC questions incorrect: Test2 ?

Testing Scenario:

All theReading Comprehension questions incorrect anywhere in the test. In this iteration I got RC questions at following question numbers: 4-6, 13-15, 18-20, 33-36. 13 SC questions in total.

Result:

V33 ( 66 percentile)

Analysis:

In both the tests I got all the 13 RC questions incorrect, but the different in the two scores was not very significant good enough. In the first test I encountered the first RC passage at the 10th question, but in the second it came early at 4th. This could be one of the reasons for the score difference.

Conclusion:

like SC, RC is also not individually adaptive and again where you got an RC question matters more than the number of RC questions that you got incorrect. So, initial RC questions (of any other initial questions) are really more important for your overall score. By observing the results we can see that scenario 10 resulted in a better score overall than scenario 9. The possible reason for this observation could be that the number of SC questions (17) is greater than that of RC questions (13).

11) What if you marked the last answer choice, but did not click submit and confirm, and the allotted time for the section gets over?

Testing Scenario:

Answered 40 verbal questions and marked the last question and waited for the time to finish.

Result:

The result was a positive one, favoring of the test taker. The test will register your answer choice and will not reward you any penalty.

Analysis/ Conclusion:

As soon as you reach the last question it's better to mark one answer choice and then attempt the that question, so even if you are not able to determine the correct answer in time, the question would still be considered for your overall score and you will receive any penalty on your score.

Quant Guessing Strategy

Testing Scenarios:

Marked the same option in all the questions.

Quant Guessing Strategy

Test #

Marked Choice

Correct

Score

1

Marked All Bs

2

6

2

Marked All Bs

4

6

3

Marked All As

7

6

4

Marked All Es

7

6

5

Marked All Ds

7

6

6

Marked All Cs

9

6

7

Marked All Cs

9

6

8

Marked All Cs

10

6

9

Marked All Ds

10

6

10

Marked All Cs

11

6

11

Marked All Cs

13

9

12

Marked All Bs

5

6

13

Marked All Ds

9

6

14

Marked All Ds

7

6

15

Marked All Cs

10

7

Analysis/ Conclusion :

Results from 15 tests show that on average an Option 'C' carries a higher probability of being correct and option B carries the lowest. I tested 'C' option the 5 times after I saw 13 correct "flukes" in the quant section. I think the reason is the DS questions in which many answers may in fact be 'C'. Another conclusion that we can derive from our results is that if you guess all the answers you are likely to get a '0' percentile no matter what answer you mark. But if you have to guess one or two and you have no idea/ time for the question mark 'C'. After the next tests it seems that D is the next after 'C' while guessing in quant. In test 15 again C resulted in 10 correct questions and a score of 7. Once again marking all Cs resulted in more number of correct answers as compared to others.

I will be posting results from new test scenarios. If you have any other interesting suggestions please let me know, I'll be happy to run the test.

7th scenario: first 10 questions answered correctly, GUESSED the next 9 questions (answered C to all of them, guessed 2 out of 9), then answered the next 9 questions correctly and finally GUESSED the remaining 9 questions (answered C to all of them, guessed 2 out of 9).

Excellent stuff Vercules One thing that I needed to clarifyI read in some GMAC blog that RC/SC/CR are separately adaptive.I am not entirely sure if I interpreted GMAC correctly but what I understood was that:For example in the first 10 questions for example, if you answer all the SC questions correctly but all the CR questions incorrectly, the next SC question is going to be difficult but the CR question is going to be easier.Do you think its right in the GMATPrep scene? _________________

Some scenarios for Verbal - All SC wrong, Rest All Correct. All CR wrong, Rest All Correct. All RC wrong, Rest All Correct.

I tried a different scenario : All CR Correct, Rest All Wrong. Result V8 1%ile.

GMAC Representative claimed that SC, CR and RC are measured independently. However even though was getting all CR correct, the CR problems were pretty easy. Hence its not true that your ability in SC will not affect the difficulty level of CR/RC questions. _________________

The question is not can you rise up to iconic! The real question is will you ?

Excellent stuff Vercules One thing that I needed to clarifyI read in some GMAC blog that RC/SC/CR are separately adaptive.I am not entirely sure if I interpreted GMAC correctly but what I understood was that:For example in the first 10 questions for example, if you answer all the SC questions correctly but all the CR questions incorrectly, the next SC question is going to be difficult but the CR question is going to be easier.Do you think its right in the GMATPrep scene?

Hi Souvik,

In my experience, chances are higher to get a tougher CR question if you solved all the previous SC questions correctly.

Anyway you will not get 10 SC in a row, they will be distributed throughout. In the actual GMAT I didn't saw more than 4 SC questions in a row.

For a single RC there are multiple questions (6 to 8) in the question pool, but in the test they throw only 3-5; the question you see will be determined by your response to previous questions.

In my actual GMAT I got a very long and tough RC passage at the end of the test. Apparently, because the momentum from the previous questions would have been good. I scored V42 in that test, so I feel the number of questions I answered incorrectly would have been around 5 to 7.

I would say, one would be lucky if one starts the verbal section with an RC because that RC, for sure, would not be a super tough one.

Awesome initiative!! The use of crystal clear language unties all knots.

Eagerly waiting for the Verbal What-if scenarios...

Just a quick Q, does GMATPrep simulate experimental questions in the same way as the test???

I think you might have even conducted multiple cycles of the same scenario. Was there no difference in the end scores?

Because I guess only experimental questions can introduce an error margin and it would be great to quantify that if possible...

Thanks to all...

Important Clarification: we have a strong reason to believe that even though GMAT Prep is the closest algorithm to the GMAT, it is most likely NOT identical. Some of these scenarios may result into a different outcome when attempted on the real test. We so far have no reports to confirm or dismiss these results based on the test day experience.

Yeah I think one of the reasons could be that GMATPrep does not contain experimental questions as GMAT does. _________________

5th scenario: first 10 questions answered correctly, then GUESSED the next 17 questions (answered C to all of them and got 4 out of 17 correct) and finally answered the remaining 10 questions correctly.Result: Q46, 73rd percentile. _________________

Testing Scenario:All the FIRST 6 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:V33 ( 66 percentile, a good score, but definitely not an awesome score)

Analysis:Getting first 6 questions incorrect is more realistic than getting the first 11 incorrect. As compared to the last two results the first 6 question greatly damaged the overall verbal score.

Conclusion:The first incorrect 6 questions can destroy someones' hope of reaching even the 70+ percentile mark in verbal, no matter how well he/ she performs on the remaining questions. The apparent conclusion is that one should not take the initial questions lightly.

is not difficult to infer the conclusion of these tests on official prep software eventhough I guess it will be squize even more. i.e. is early to have definitive thoughts

- what I read on several forum, blog, official articles and so on and so forth if in some extent on quant section (though not so much) the first questions are crucial BUT you "have a margin of maneuver" (of course after that there are no rooms for errors or at least few errors AFTER middle end part)

- on verbal: this confirm that for a 680 and over verbal is more important than quant. no excuses. if you aim to 750/760 then you have to do well on both side.

As such, once again, gmatclub marked the most obscure part of the test and how it works. I think after that only the algorithm we would need in its entirely. This " torture tests" are enough to make the things clear _________________

Excellent stuff Vercules One thing that I needed to clarifyI read in some GMAC blog that RC/SC/CR are separately adaptive.I am not entirely sure if I interpreted GMAC correctly but what I understood was that:For example in the first 10 questions for example, if you answer all the SC questions correctly but all the CR questions incorrectly, the next SC question is going to be difficult but the CR question is going to be easier.Do you think its right in the GMATPrep scene?

Hi Souvik, From what I recollect , in one of the forum posts Ron had answered a similar question about RC. The individual question types are not separately adaptive (Just like you,I earlier thought that was the case). So for instance, say you are at question #30 SC & you are performing at 700+ level then your next question #31 CR/RC/SC will be of the same or higher difficulty level. How it works for RC? the QP1 and Gmat prep software have a collection of 5-6 RC questions per passage, you will face a easier question from the mix if you are not doing well(depending on your performance on the previous CR/SC questions) and vice versa. So indeed the RC/SC/CR are not separately adaptive.